Need some advice - DWC root issues?

Ive been doing pool shock routinely. Havent tried a heavy dose on this outbreak, but I did try spraying some that was at least that strong directly on the roots of the previous plant and it didnt stop it.

I think the only option ow is to try the algecide. From that quote you posted above, I think the chelated copper stuff sounds like the best bet, but Im still looking.

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Well, algaecides do not kill every living thing in the pond, so theres a chance they do their job.

Have you tried bennies at all? Not through the system but maybe manually sprayed on the roots? Who knows, that shit might eat algaeā€¦

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Yup. Direct spray on the roots - no effect as far as I can see. Cant run them through the HPA system - it kills them.

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Dam, I donā€™t know anymore. Maybe my hydro store buddy was right after all - sterile room with positive pressure and filtration.

I dont know about where you are, but in coastal SW BC I can now, after knowing what it is, almost taste algae every time I go outside, except in the months of may through Augustā€¦

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I didnā€™t read the whole thread, so hopefully Iā€™m still on topic here.

What products are you running in your bucket? Iā€™m curious. Some organic products really fuel algae, some donā€™t at all. That might be some of the issue here.

I run both Hydroguard and Orca for safety and that does an excellent job at keeping things golden throughout runs. Temps are obviously important tooā€¦ anything above 72 and youā€™re really asking for problems, but down in the high 60ā€™s is where you should be. UC roots, which I also have, is for a sterile res. Itā€™s similar to pool shock. Smells like a bottle of bleach. I use it in my cloner mostly and it works great for that. So if you have things like Mammoth P, Hydroguard, Orca and other microbes and living things, then youā€™re just going to kill it off with UC Roots. So you gotta pick one or the otherā€¦ Iā€™m for live as well, but you have to be careful what organic stuff youā€™re putting in your resā€¦ Some stuff just doesnā€™t work out and causes issues. Best to keep it really simple as far as additives go until you get your system under control.

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@SportFarmer, I just ran nutes and pool shock, no bennies. @anon32470837 also ran sterilizing agents, but he is in the same geographical area (although a different country) known for rampant algae, and is seeing growth in aeroponics chambers too.

To be honest I needed to keep the production up so i switched the plants to coco, which is tried tested and true here, but do want to try again and hopefully get rid of the medium either through DWC or AA HPA.

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I hear ya on thatā€¦ Cant be without smokeā€¦ :smiley: Flood and drain w/ coco is certainly a nice route to go. DWC can be a pain in the ass but damn rewarding at the same time. Itā€™s a tricky system until you get things dialed for yourself, that is for sure.

Hmmm, Iā€™ve heard of others having issues like this with well water tooā€¦ A lot of those guys ended up brewing teas to solve the issue with algae. Iā€™m surprised to hear pool shock is not working. Have you thought about teas?

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Teas is the only thing I have not tried. By the time the first suggestion came about I was already 3 weeks behind and itching to see some progress. Maybe Iā€™ll try that in a single bubbler next time. I even saved some dehydrated algae in a jar to inoculate a bucket to test other methods. Iā€™m sick like that.

But what I will likely do before then is pursue a completely sterile aero chamber. I worked on a few commercial grow facilities, and they all seem to be sterile, airlocked, and severely hydroponic :wink:

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I just did a lot more reading. The pool guys say the brown algae is actually a form of mustard algae. They also say its chlorine ā€˜resistantā€™ and very difficult to kill, but thats still what they use to kill it.

They dont like algaecides because they add copper to the pool water - which is a no no in pools.

They recommend at least two to three heavy duty shock treatments in the 20PPM or higher range. They also recommend repeated brushing and vacuuming of the pool and scrubbing anything you can reach.

I dont have any algaecide at the moment, so I just dunked the entire root ball (its small) in some 60PPM pool shock for about 30 seconds. I also upped the PPM in the rez to 10 PPM. It will be diluted by the time it reaches the roots, so that should be safe - maybe.

Iā€™ll see how it looks tomorrow and maybe do another dunk - if the plant hasnt died yet :slight_smile: If this doesnt work, then I will order some algaecide and try that.

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Well, shit you probably donā€™t need my advice then, lol. I just thought Iā€™d chime in because Iā€™ve been down this road before with the algae. But yeah teas work very well actually, so you may consider that in the future.

Itā€™s some interesting stuff. It can just infest your whole root zone in less then 24 hours out of nowhere and basically suffocate them. Anytime I got the problem in the past I would just out army them with Hydroguardā€¦ drop like 15ml on their asses and a week later theyā€™re pretty much gone. but the infected areas are stained for good.

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This is interesting. I wonder if the brown stuff I saw on my one plants roots was the same? I assumed root rot, but who knows, you guys got me thinking.

The room rebuild includes positive-pressure root zones this time around, along with a sterile res and highly filtered air. Maybe this will help take care of it for me.

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Pool shock up-date - no effect as far as I can tell. In fact, the brown is spreading. Almost all the roots are now brown. Ive done one 30 second dunk, and two one minute dunks in pool shock that is around 200 PPM. Plus, I upped the shock to around 10 PPM in the rez.

The plant still looks great. No signs of stress from the chlorine or the browning at all.

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So are we in consensus then that what we have infesting our gardens is brown/mustard algae? I know of nothing that can survive 200ppm of chlorine :confused:

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I think so, but cant be 100% sure. I have no smell at all - other than a rather nice hey smell from the roots. I cant detect any slime either, but the roots are very small yet, and there is no build up to speak of, Its just brown discoloration at this point.

BUT - if it was normal root rot, I would expect it to be at least somewhat effected by 200 PPM chlorine.

According to the pool websites I checked, this should kill it - but - they leave it circulating in the pool for far far longer than the 1 minute I am doing - a couple of days at least. Im worried much longer soaking will kill the plant before it kills the algae.

Ive been searching for a cheap chelated copper to try. I will order something tonight. In the mean time, I will continue the chlorine treatments every few hours - just in case it is helping.

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Chelated copper:

Donā€™t like the sound of this, more copper experiments :mask: :grimacing: :smile:

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That stuff sounds like its a nutrient??? No mention that I could see about killing anything. Very interesting.

Well, I just ordered some of this 7% chelated copper deadly poison, will kill you for sure stuff, so yeah, more copper experiments and more victims in the torture chamber of death!! :smiley:

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:joy::joy::joy::joy: Hope they will be alright :blush:gl

I had this problem in my outdoor DWC few years ago but it was because of the Light leak and high temperature. I panicked so much I cut most of the infected roots and the plants Just died in few Hours. What a sad learning day that wasā€¦:neutral_face:

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I have not heard anyone say about flush out your reservoir. I have a hydro and bucket. If I do not flush often.The nutrients cover the roots and will build up on your roots. I flush once a week to keep the fresh water and nutrients. This is only thing I can think of.
happy gardening !

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It is, you had asked for chelated copper.

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Well, it turns out that dunking the roots into concentrated chlorine four times in 24 hours might be pushing it a bit. Last night I did the fourth one minute dunk, and a couple of hours later, the baby was drooping badly with the leaf tips curled pretty tightly under.

But, today she is starting to perk back up, and by this evening she is looking almost ok again. Unfortunately, the brown is still brown. I cant see any change for the better in the roots.

The copper stuff will be here early next week. We will see how that does.

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